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SharePoint 2010 engineering efforts on targeting standards based browsers (XHTML 1.0 compliant) including IE7, IE8 and Firefox 3.x. running on Windows Operating Systems. Increased level of compatibility with Firefox 3.x and Safari 3.x on non-Windows Operating Systems. Due to this focus Internet Explorer 6 will not be a supported browser for SharePoint Server 2010.

What can be done today to get into the best shape for SharePoint Server 2010?

Ensuring new hardware is 64-bit. Deploying 64-bit is currently best practice recommendation for SharePoint 2007.

Deploy Service Pack 2 and take a good look at the SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Checker that’s shipped as part of the update. The Upgrade Checker scans the SharePoint Server 2007 deployment for many issues that could affect a future upgrade to SharePoint 2010.

Get to know Windows Server 2008 with SharePoint 2007, this post is a great starting point.

Plan a desktop browser strategy if you have large population of Internet Explorer 6 users.

Keep an eye on this blog for updates and more details in the coming months.

Below are a few common Q&A’s

Q: What about Internet Explorer 6 and SharePoint 2010 publishing sites? A: The Web Content Management features built into SharePoint 2010 will provide a deep level of control over the markup and styling of the reader experience. These features will enable customers to design pages that are compatible with additional browsers for viewing content, including Internet Explorer 6. A standards based browser such as Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3.x will be required to author content.

Q: Is Internet Explorer 6 officially supported by Microsoft? A: Official Microsoft Product Support for Internet Explorer 6 will expire in July 2010. You can find additional information on Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle Policy including specific dates, product information and support offerings here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy.

Q: Why are you only supporting the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2005 or 2008 for SharePoint Server 2010? A: This decision was based on our current test data for SharePoint Server 2010 and real world experience from customers running SharePoint Server 2007 with 32-bit SQL Server. SharePoint performance and scalability can benefit significantly from 64-bit SQL Server and the throughput increases are significant enough for us to make the difficult decision to only support SharePoint Server 2010 on 64-bit SQL Server 2005 or 2008. It has been our strong recommendation for some time that SharePoint Server 2007 customers take advantage of 64-bit SQL Server due to the inherent performance and scale benefits it can provide.